With only six letters, one short word can transform our entire outlook: Spring. A few short months that rewards our patience with blossoms, buds and a carnival of irresistible colors—what could be better?

Today we turn our attention to the stunning home of a client, whose lush North Shore garden is like a dream sequence of greenery and serenity. Betsy Nathan recalls working with the homeowner when he sourced our selection of Taihu Stones and Meditation Stones for the space.

I remember listening to what he wanted to do and then later visiting the grounds for the first time. It takes crazy inspired genius to visualize and then transform a living environment into that kind of master work…especially knowing that he isn’t a trained landscape architect, but working with passion and vision straight from the heart.

Working purely on instinct, he artfully placed a series of raw boulders around the grounds, using them as stepping stones and to encircle foliage. Flat mediation stones were stacked to line garden beds, while slender taihu stones served as quietly beautiful vertical sculptures throughout. Fortunate to have a natural water feature in his backyard, he also used a colorful selection of painting stones to change the natural direction of a waterfall, selecting a giant greenery stone to act as a natural bridge across a pond.

Captured in early spring as all the flowering bushes have opened, the grounds span over an acre and also showcase the client’s enviable green thumb, as peonies and rhododendrons are his specialty. Inspired by Japanese gardens he visited and admired, the landscape features graceful sweeping forms, Maple and Beech trees, and a stream. While our client reveals that one of his ardent wishes for the exterior was to have a koi pond, we think he achieved that and so much more.

Here is a look at this remarkable oasis—one that seems worlds away from the Midwest.